How to apply for a federal job

As a Veteran, no matter what level of disability you have two routes that you can apply through.

The are two routes you apply – directly to the facility and through the Delegated Examining Unit (DEU). The way that the two types of announcements can be discerned; is the contact information for that announcement. Facility announcements are only for Status positions. Status means that the announcement is only eligible for veterans, current or former employees of the federal government (that have reinstatement rights – which don’t trump veterans preference). Facilities generally cannot announce positions to the general public. Facility announcements will have a person’s name and contact information while DEU announcements will not. If you are found ‘qualified’ from a facility announcement; you will be placed on a separate veterans hiring certificate. Depending on how many applicants for a position there are and local HR office custom is the factor pushing how far the different types of applicants are broken down and how many hiring certificates are prepared. The veterans preference hiring authority (VRA/VEOA, etc) is cited for the certificate; but not the 5 or 10 point preference.

When you find a job that sounds good, make a early decision on your qualifications. Use the link on one of the attached documents and look up the qualifications for the occupational specialty on the OPM web site. It may take a little drilling through the OPM site; but will prevent you from wasting time applying for a job that you don’t meet the minimum requirements for. Most announcements will also require/desire evidence of a years experience commensurate with a year’s work at the next lowest grade level. Your resume should reflect those kind of duties.

The point preference system is used by the DEU’s in scoring their applicants. The point preference system was created during the times that everyone took a written exam for all civil service positions. That gave veterans five or ten points on top of their score. Since then there have The five or ten points are added on to the score. Qualification for DEU announcements is primarily by the score value to the occupational questionnaire that has replaced the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities essay exam from hell. A multiple choice questionnaire that can be as many as 85 questions has replaced it. If a questionnaire goes over 35, it’s one of the longer ones. Generally to be qualified an applicant will have to score 70 or better. The hiring certificate that is sent to the facility will be broken down into the categories of Best Qualified, Well Qualified, and Qualified. Veterans will float to the top in each of these categories. Veterans cannot be bypassed (except for another veteran on the list) without approval from the Office of Personnel Management.

While USAJobs will allow you to save 5 different resume’s; the resume you submit as part of your application packet needs to be targeted specifically to that particular job. Check the announcement for duties and other narrative information and insure that your resume reflect the skills listed there. While in the civilian sector applicants are told to keep their resume’s short – don’t do that with civil service. The HR Specialist that reviews your packet may or probably not have technical expertise or be a SME on a specific field like IT. Short resume narratives while listing all your IT certifications could find you not qualified.

USAJobs will also allow you to keep five separate search’s running. These are set up along the parameters of location, civil service grade/pay, occupational specialty code (read as MOS), and hiring agency. A collection of links to the jobs, that meet your search parameters, have opened in the previous 24 hours will be emailed to your daily.

For those in technical fields like IT, ensure your resume narratives are descriptive without a lot of acronyms. Don’t depend on a list of certifications to substitute for that. Your resume has to match the answers in the occupation questionnaire. The initial review of your application will probably NOT be by someone in your technical field. You can geek-speak yourself into disqualification very easily.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell… I have glossed over a LOT of small boring details. Those are covered in more detail in the attached documents.

Lewis B. Puller for todays problems!

Para great post. The specifics of targeting a resume to each idividual position description is golden advice. I would just add let the people in personnel decide if you are qualified it you like the position put in an application don't just say I am not qualified and move on.
Para I would ask to have this put on as a sticky because even though you have done time in the military does not make to an expert on the resumix system.
Bill

Automated resume scanners are a cheap thrill. That's why the resume has to be targeted and contain some of the same words used in the announcement. Army CPOL uses Resumix.

A lot (if not most) of the rest of the government uses USAStaffing (USAS) for the back-end and USA Jobs for the front end. I believe now almost everything on USA Jobs will feed to USAS. USAS uses a multiple choice questionnaire in place of the essay exam from hell KSA's. Even though the questionnaire can be based on the KSA's. The questionnaires are limited to 80 questions (hey - better than essay questions), how ever if a questionnaire does go over 40 questions... the scoring gets REAL hard to set up right. That's a major advantage is that USAS will make the HR person test the questionnaire and approve of the results before taking the next step in the creation of the job announcement.

hello i am a high school senior I am wondering which way would it be better to get a federal law enforcement job ,should i join the coast guard or should i join border patrol id like to do something tactical but also investigative basically have a bit of both ; any suggestions all after college of course

hello i am a high school senior I am wondering which way would it be better to get a federal law enforcement job ,should i join the coast guard or should i join border patrol id like to do something tactical but also investigative basically have a bit of both ; any suggestions all after college of course

No one is going to tell you what you should do, that's on your shoulders.
Have you looked seriously into what exactly Border Patrol and Coast Guard do in their respective jobs? That should be your starting point.
Do either/both give what you are looking for?

A little advice, check your grammar and spelling, you'll impress no-one here or in any work searching with the way you wrote this post.

I understand and yes I've looked into both although the question isn't worded right . I am wanting to become a Federal agent with either the FBI or DSS and maybe on of their tactical teams as my goal I am wondering what be better to accomplish that goal joining the military (namely the coast guard )or joining border patrol

I understand and yes I've looked into both although the question isn't worded right . I am wanting to become a Federal agent with either the FBI or DSS and maybe on of their tactical teams as my goal I am wondering what be better to accomplish that goal joining the military (namely the coast guard )or joining border patrol

Hmm, others can probably give you better advice than I with that. Military service will give you hiring preference for Federal jobs, though Border Patrol is already federal service so you'd be doing a lateral transfer.
What are the hiring preferences for both FBI and DSS? What are your chances of direct enlistment into them after college? Have you looked an internships with them?

I understand. I've looked into both. The question isn't worded right . I want to become a Federal agent with either the FBI or DSS. One of my goals is to join their tactical team. Would joining the military (namely the Coast Guard ) or joining the Border Patrol help me accomplish this goal?

Do you see the difference between what you wrote and what I wrote? As a high school senior you should have a sufficient grasp of the Queen's English to present yourself well. If I saw an application with this many grammatical mistakes cross my desk, any consideration for hiring would end right there. Presentation matters immensely.

To answer your question, military service will give you an edge. It doesn't really matter what you did in the service, or which service you chose. If you are interested in certain hiring pathways--the FBI's HRT recruitment program, for example--then military special operations experience will be necessary. I wouldn't consider the Border Patrol unless you are truly committed to their mission; looking at them as a stepping stone to a Special Agent position is a mistake in my opinion.

With that said, do well in college and stay out of trouble. Develop a good reputation, pursue a degree that the feds are interested in, and apply as soon as you're able to. If you're a strong candidate you'll get hired with or without military service.

Do you see the difference between what you wrote and what I wrote? As a high school senior you should have a sufficient grasp of the Queen's English to present yourself well. If I saw an application with this many grammatical mistakes cross my desk, any consideration for hiring would end right there. Presentation matters immensely.

To answer your question, military service will give you an edge. It doesn't really matter what you did in the service, or which service you chose. If you are interested in certain hiring pathways--the FBI's HRT recruitment program, for example--then military special operations experience will be necessary. I wouldn't consider the Border Patrol unless you are truly committed to their mission; looking at them as a stepping stone to a Special Agent position is a mistake in my opinion.

With that said, do well in college and stay out of trouble. Develop a good reputation, pursue a degree that the feds are interested in, and apply as soon as you're able to. If you're a strong candidate you'll get hired with or without military service.

But, for your edification, if you click on the area with the user name next to a posting, you can follow that to an individual's profile. If, in fact, that profile is open for viewing by the general populace is up to the user. In this case, Policemedic's profile is open for viewing, so go to the information tab... voila! the information is automagically supplied by the sometimes friendly gremlins that run the internetsmachinethingies for us.

But, for your edification, if you click on the area with the user name next to a posting, you can follow that to an individual's profile. If, in fact, that profile is open for viewing by the general populace is up to the user. In this case, Policemedic's profile is open for viewing, so go to the information tab... voila! the information is automagically supplied by the sometimes friendly gremlins that run the internetsmachinethingies for us.

At first, I planned to pen a long prose devoted to your incorrect word choice however, I realized that the final part of your post was actually an attempt to invoke enlightenment of the interrelated processes of the 1's and 0's that permeate the internet and thereby, the World Wide Web.

CrotchedtyOldFemaleVet

At first, I planned to pen a long prose devoted to your incorrect word choice however, I realized that the final part of your post was actually an attempt to invoke enlightenment of the interrelated processes of the 1's and 0's that permeate the internet and thereby, the World Wide Web.